Worst of all, the Fuhrer was far from ordering full wartime production, even then, for he knew it would be an unpopular move. All in all we were going out on very thin ice. The staff placed no hope in the peace talks. Hitler, however, while going through his planned histrionics with Henderson, apparently36 got carried away by his own playacting and the constant assurances of Ribbentrop; he began to believe that England might be bluffed37 once more and might present us with another Munich. At Supreme Headquarters, in the first days of September, nobody could fail to notice that when the Western declarations of war came through, the Fuhrer was surprised and shaken. But there was nothing to do at that point but execute Case White. Strategy The plan called for simultaneous flank attacks from the north and the south, aimed to cut off the Corridor and proceed to Warsaw. The Poles elected to stand all along their indefensible border, thus inviting39 quick fragmenting, encirclement, and reduction. They should have prepared their main defenses along the lines Vistula-Narew-Bug. This would have prolonged hostilities41, and encouraged the British and French to attack our weak holding force in the west. This could have been devastating42. Adventurous43 authoritarian44 leadership had exposed the German people to a bad risk. However, the gods smiled on us at the time, the Poles proved as inept45 in their strategic dispositions46 as they were brave in the field, and the French sat in their camps and fortresses47, scarcely firing a shot. Nowadays German commentators48 write of the "miracle" of the French static defense40 in September 1939, which made the Polish blitzkrieg possible. It is hard to see where the "miracle" lay. French military thinking was defensive49 and positional, because such thinking had triumphed in 1918. They had an obsession50 with the theoretical ten-to-one advantage of the defense in mechanized warfare51. There is no doubt that in September France could have sent millions of A well-trained soldiers, with More armored divisions than the Wehrmacht had in Poland, crashing out of the Maginot fortresses, or via the northern plain through Belgium and Holland, into our paper-thin western formations, and rolled to Berlin. But the will was not there. Adolf Hitler's political and military gamble on this vital point proved brilliant. Of all his opponents, he throughout best understood and anticipated the French. Victory The Polish breakthrough phase took approximately four days. Complete tactical surprise was achieved because the hypocritical Polish politicians, though wholly aware of the danger, kept giving their people false assurances. The Polish air force of almost a thousand planes was destroyed on the ground. Thereafter the Luftwaffe freely roomed the skies. Polish ground resistance was moderate to heavy, and our commanders in the field had to admire the bold cavalry52 dashes against tankformations. Perhaps the legend is true that the Polish horsemen were told by their government that our tanks were papier-mache dummies53! In that case, they were soon sadly disabused54. The contrast between the possibilities of mechanized warfare and classic military tactics was never more strikingly demonstrated than in these ineffectual charges of the Polish horsemen against iron tanks. Nevertheless, the Wehrmacht too was operating with but a thin knife-edge of fully55 motorized armored divisions. Our important ground advances were made by infantry56 masses on foot, exploiting the breakdown57 of communication" the panic, and the disarray58 of battle lines created by the narrow panzer thrusts. And while the Luftwaffe played a strong support role, it was the horse-drawn artillery59 massed outside Warsaw, and not the air bombardment, that in the end knocked out the city's capacity to resist and brought the eventual13 surrender. This heavy reliance on horses betrayed our serious lack of combat readiness for world war. By September 21 the city was ringed by Wehrmacht forces; and the news from outside was of Polish soldiers being taken prisoner in the hundreds of thousands, of one pocket after another being liquidated60, of a total collapse61 of the front, of a national government Pusillanimously62 fleeing to Rumania. Yet it was not until September 27 that the city, under a round-the-clock rain of shells and bombs, without food, water, or light, with many foflaisttsmbiun buildings in ruins, with disease spreading, finally gave up its vain hopes of deliverance from the West, and surrendered. Observations From first to last, the Fuhrer and his propagandists played down the Polish campaign as a local Police action, a "special task" of the Wehrmacht. Hitler personally cancelled many sections of Case White dealing63 with rationing64, troop mobilization, and transport, with one aim in mind: to soften65 the impact on the German people. This political meddling66 represented a considerable setback67 to operations, and precious months passed before the damage was righted. I may say here, that due to similar Party and Fuhrer interference, which never ceased, the war effort was never, by professional standards, organized fully or properly. The shabby farce68 enacted69 at our radio station at Gleiwitz near the Polish border on the night of August 31-the pretense70 that Polish soldiers had crossed over to attack the station and been repulsed71, the dressing72 of condemned73 political prisoners in Polish uniforms and the scattering74 of their bullet-riddled bodies near the station, as an excuse for starting the invasion-none of this trivial humbug75 was known to the Wehrmacht. We were irrevocably on the march toward Poland seventy-two hours earlier. I myself did not learn of the incident until the Nuremberg trials; I was too busy at the time with serious matters.* Himmler was probably responsible. Poland in 1939 was a backward and ill-informed dictatorship of reactionary76 colonels and politicians with fantastic territorial aims, a government extremely brutal77 to minorities (especially the Ukrainians and the Jews) and unjust and mendacious78 to its own people; a government that pounced79 like a hyena80 on Czechoslovakia at the Munich crisis and tore aprovince from that country in its hardest hour; a government that clumsily played a double game with Germany and the Soviet union for twenty years; and to the last tried to talk and act like a major military power when it was in fact as weak as a kitten. It was to support this reactionary, bluffing81, bigoted82 dictatorship that the democracies embarked83 on the Second World War. That government quickly and ignominiously84 fell to pieces and disappeared forever. But the war went on, and its starting point was soon all but forgotten. Some day, however, sober historians must again give the proper emphasis to these absurd paradoxes85 that governed the provoking of the world's biggest war. The final absurdity86 of this inept start to a terrible global struggle was that Czechoslovakia, betrayed by England in 1938, did not fight, and in the whole war period lost less than one hundred thousand people. Poland, supported by England in 1939, fought and lost almost six million dead (though about half of these were Jews). Both countries ended up as Communist puppets under the heel of the Soviet union. Which government then was the wiser, and which people the more fortunate? When great powers fall out, small powers do well to bow to the storm wind, in whichever direction it blows strongest. That was what the Poles forgot. The veracity87 of this statement is questionable88.-V.H. TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The reader will have to grow used to the German habit of blaming other countries for getting themselves invaded by Germans. This note recurs89 throughout General von Roon's book, as through most of their military literature. Officers raised under the General Staff system apparently lost the power to think in other terms. Roon's discussion of the Polish government and the British guarantee are the telling passages in his preliminary sketch90 of Case White. -V.H. GERMAN ARMY ATTACKS POLAND; CITIES BOMBED, PORT BLOCKADED; DANZIG IS ACCEPTED INTO THE REICH The New York Times, raising its voice to suit the occasion in its Teight-column once-in-a-generation italic headlines, topped the sprawl91 of newspapers on the desk under Hugh Cleveland's stocking feet. The other papers had headlines far larger and blacker than the Times's genteel bellow92. Tilted93 back in his shirt-sleeves in a swivel chair, a telephone cradled between his head and left shoulder, Cleveland was making quick red crayon marks on a sheaf of yellow typing paper and sipping94 coffee as he talked. Eight years in the broadcasting business had made him deft95 at such juggling96. Though he looked the picture of busy contentment, his voice was angry. His morning show, called Who's in Town, featured interviews with celebrities97 passing through New York. The war crisis, suddenly roaring into the Columbia Broadcasting System, had snatched off Cleveland's secretary to the newsroom for emergency service, and he was protesting to the personnel office, or trying to. He still could not get through to the manager. A short girl in a flat black straw hat appeared in the open doorway98.
Behind her, in the big central offices of CBS News, the hubbub99 over the war news was still rising. Secretaries were rattling100 at typewriters or scampering101 with papers, messenger boys ran with coffee and sandwiches, knots of men in shirt-sleeves gathered at the chattering102 teletypes, and everybody appeared to be either shouting, or smoking, or both. "Mr. Cleveland?" The girl's voice was sweet but shaky. Her awed103 round eyes made her look about sixteen. Cleveland put his hand on the mouthpiece of his telephone. "Yes?" "The personnel office sent me up to you." "You? How old are you?" "Twenty." Cleveland appeared skeptical104, but he hung up the telephone. "What's your name?" 'Madeline Henry." Cleveland sighed. "Well, okay, Madeline. If you're in the pool, you must know the ropes. So take off that cartwheel and get started, okay? First get me another cup of coffee and a chicken sandwich, please. Then there's tomorrow's script"-he rattled106 the yellow sheets-"to be typed over." Madeline could bluff38 no further. She was in New York to buy clothes. The outbreak of the war had prompted her to walk into CBS to see if extra girls were needed. In the employment office a harried107 woman wearing yellow paper cuffs108 had thrust a slip at her, after a few questions about her schooling109, and sent her up to Cleveland. "Talk to him. If he likes you, we may take you on. He's screaming for a girl and we've got nobody to spare." Stepping just inside the door and planting her legs apart, taking off her hat and clutching it, Madeline confessed that nobody had hired her yet; that she was visiting New York, lived in Washington, had to go back to school, detested110 the thought of it, feared her father too much to do anything else, and had just walked into CBS on an impulse. He listened, smiling and surveying her with eyes half-closed. She wore a sleeveless red cotton frock and she had excellent color from a sailing weekend. "Well, Madeline, what does it add up to? Do you want the job or not?" "I was thinking-could I come back in a week or so?" Hi pleasant look faded. He picked up the telephone. "Get me Personnel again. Yes, you come back sometime, Madeline." She said, "I'll fetch you your coffee and sandwich right now. I can do that. I'll type your scripttoday, too. Couldn't I work for you for three weeks? I don't have to go back to school until the twenty-second. My father will kill me when he finds out, but I don't care." "Where's your father? In Washington?" "He's in Berlin. He's the naval111 attache there." "What?" Hugh Cleveland hung up the telephone and took his feet off the desk. "Your father is our naval attache in Nazi112 Germany?" 'that's right." 'Imagine that. So! You're a Navy junior." He threw a five-dollar bill on the desk. "All right. Get me the sandwich, Madeline, please. White meat, lettuce113, pepper, mayonnaise. Black coffee. Then we'll talk some more. Buy yourself a sandwich too." "Yes, Mr. Cleveland." Holding the bill, Madeline rushed into the outer hall and stood there dazed. Having heard the Who's in Tourn program a few times, she had at once recognized Cleveland's peculiarly warm rich voice; a real broadcaster, with his own program, and all at once she was working for him. That was wartime for you! A girl swishing by with a bag of food told her where to buy sandwiches. But twenty chattering girls swarmed114 at the takeout counter of the luncheonette off the lobby. She went out on Madison Avenue and stood blinking in the warm sunshine. The New York scene was normal. Crowds marched on the sidewalks; cars and buses ed both ways in a stench of fumes115; people carried packages into and stream out of stores and looked in windows. The only novelty was that the news vendors117 with fresh stacks of afternoon papers were crying war. Madeline ran to the big drugstore across the street, where the soda118 fountain was jammed with secretaries and shoppers, talking and laughing over bowls of chili119 or soup. The usual sort of people were wandering through the aisles120, and cheap clocks. A fat old buying toothpaste, lotions121, aspirin122, candy, blonde woman in an apron123 and cap quickly made up her sandwiches. "Well, honey, who's going to win the war?" she said sociably124 as she peppered the chicken. "Let's just hope Hitler doesn't," Madeline said. "Yes, isn't he something? Sieg Heil! Ha, ha. I think the man's crazy. I've always said so, and this proves it." She handed Madeline the sandwiches. "Well, honey, so long as we keep out of it, what do we care who wins? Madeline bought an evening paper that offered gigantic headlines but no fresh news. just to scan such a dramatic front page was novel fun. Though the war was happening so far away, Madeline felt a springtime quickening in her veins125. A scent126 of freedom, of new action, rose from the headlines. The President hadannounced at once, very firmly, that America was staying out of it. But things were going to be mighty127 different from now on. That was inevitable128! All her thoughts were about the letter she would write to her father, if only she could get this job. Cleveland, feet on his desk again, a flirtatious129 smirk130 on his face, was telephoning. He nodded at Madeline and-as he went on coaxing131 some girl, in his warmly rumbling132 voice, to meet him at Toots Sbor's restaurant -he wolfed the sandwich. "Why don't you eat the other one?" Madeline said. "I'm not hungry." "Are you sure? I don't want to rob you." He hung up and unwrapped her sandwich. "Ordinarily I don't eat much during the day, but with all this war talk-" He took a great bite and went on talking. "Thanks. I swear I'm as hungry as I get at funerals. Ever notice how famished133 you get at a funeral, Madeline? It's the sheer delight of being alive, I guess, while this Now listen, you want other poor joker's just been buried in a dingy134 hole. i e to work for me for three weeks, is that it? That'll be fine. It'll give me a chance to look over what's around in Personnel." He flourished a brown envelope at her. "Now then. Gary Cooper is at the Saint Regis, Room 641this is a sample Who's in Town script. Take it to him. We may get him for Thursday." "Gary COOPER? You mean the movie star?" Madeline in astonishment135 zoomed136 words like her mother. 'Who else? He may ask you questions about the show and about me. So listen and get this rundown in your head. We work inchwiatirhso,ubtoaonks auience in a little studio, very relaxed. It's a room with a rug, really nice, like a library in a home. It's the same room Mrs. Roosevelt uses for her show. We can do the script in extra big type, if he needs show runs an hour and a half. I started this 71 that. He can take five minutes or fifteen. e whole '34 and did it there show in Los Angeles back in for three years. I called it 0-ver the Coffee then. Maybe he heard it. Of course he may be too busy to go into all that. Anyway, act as though you've been with the show for a while.Too dazzled and excited to talk, Madeline held out her hand for the envelope. Cleveland gave it to her, saying, "All set? Anchors aweigh. For Christ's sake, don't ask him for his autograph. Telephone me if there's any holdup. Don't fail to reappear. Madeline blurted137, "You must have had some very stupid girls working for you," and hurried out. A maid opened the door of the hotel suite138 where Gary Cooper, in a gray suit, sat eating lunch at a wheeled table. The star rose, immensely tall and slim, smiling down at Madeline. He put onblack-rimmed glasses, glanced over the script as he drank coffee, and asked questions. He was all business, the farthest thing from a bashful cowboy; he had the manner of an admiral. When she mentioned the Over the Coffee show he brightened. "Yes, I remember that." Almost at once, it seemed, she was out on the sunny street again, overwrought, thrilled to her bones. "England mobilizes! Hitler smashes into Polandi)) the news vendor116 at the corner hoarsely140 chanted. "Bless your little heart!" Cleveland said as she came into the office. He was banging rapidly at a typewriter. "Cooper just called. He likes the idea and he's in." Ripping the yellow sheet out of the machine, he clipped it with others. "He remarked on what a nice girl you were. What did you say to him?" "Hardly anything." "Well, you did a good job. I'm off to interview him now. There's tomorrow's script. Do a smooth copy of the red-checked pages, then get the whole thing to mimeo instanter. Room 309A." Cleveland stepped into his shoes, straightened his tie, and threw on a rust-colored sports jacket. He scratched his heavy blond hair, and grinned at her, raising thick humorously arched eyebrows141. She felt she would do anything for him. He was charming, she decided142, rather than actually handsome. There was something infectiously jovial143 about him, a spark of devilish amusement in his lively blue eyes. She was a bit disappointed to see, when he stood up, that though he could not be more than thirty-one or so, his stomach bulged144. But it didn't matter. He paused at the door. "Do you mind working nights? You'll get paid overtime145. If you come back here around eight-thirty tonight, you'll find Thursday's rough on my desk, with the Cooper spot." "Mr. Cleveland, I haven't been hired yet." "You have been. I just talked to Mrs. Hennessy. After you get that script to mimeo, go down and fill out your papers." Madeline toiled146 for five hours to finish the script. She turned it in, messy though her work was, hoping it would not end her radio career then and there. At the employment office she learned she was starting at thirty-five dollars a week. It seemed a fortune. She took her aching back to the drugstore, made a quick dinner of a chocolate drink and a bacon and tomato sandwich, and walked back to CBS. Over the tall black Madison Avenue buildings, checkered147 with gold-lit windows, a misty148 full moon floated in a sunset sky. This day when Hitler's war began was turning out the most delightful149 in Madeline Henry's life. On Cleveland's desk the interview with Gary Cooper now lay, a mass of crude typing, quick scrawls150 and red crayon cuts. The note clipped to it said: Try to copy it all over tonight. See you around ten.
Madeline groaned151; she was terribly tired. She put in a call to Warren at the bachelor officers' quarters of the Pensacola flying school. He wasn't there, but an operator with a Southern accent like a vaudeville152 imitation offered to track him down. In the smoky newsroom, girls kept crisscrossing with long teletype strips or paper cups of coffee, men were talking loud and fast, and the typewriter din6 never stopped. Through the open door Madeline heard contradictory153 rumors154: Poland was already collapsing155, Hitler was on his way to Warsaw, Mussolini was flying to Berlin, the French were pressing England for another Munich deal, Hitler was offering to visit Chamberlain. The telephone rang at ten dclock and there was Warren on the line, with music and laughter in the background. He was at the beach club, he said, at a moonlight dance on a terrace lined with palm trees. He had just met a Marvelous girl, the daughter of a Congressman156. Madeline told him about the CBS job, and he seemed amused and impressed. 'Say, I've heard Who's in Town," he said. "This fellow Hugh Cleveland has an interesting voice. What's he like?" "Oh, very nice. Do you think it's all right? Will Dad be furious?" "Matty, you'll be back at school in three weeks, before he even knows about it. Where will you stay?... Oh, yes, that's an all-women hotel, I know that one. Ha! Little Madeline on the town." "You don't oh ect?" "Me? Why, I think it's fine. just be a good girl, and all that. What's the word at CBS, Madeline? Is the war on? The scuttlebutt down here is that England is chickening out." "Nothing but here too, a dozen an hour. Is your date really the daughter of a congressman?"P "YOu (rumors) bet, and she is a dish." "TOugh life you're leading. How's the flying coming?" "I groundlooped on my second solo landing, but don't write Dad that. I'm doing better now. it's great." "Good, you're still here," Cleveland said, walking into the office a few minutes after this conversation. With him was a tall beauty in a black straw hat much Wider than Madeline's, and a gray silk dress. Her gardenia157 perfume was too strong for the small office. Cleveland glanced at Madeline's typed pages-'Need a little practice, ehr "I warm up as I go along.-Her voice trembled. She Cleared her throat. "Let's hope so. Now look, do you by any chance know of an admiral named Preble? Is he some high muckymuck?" "Preble? Do you mean Stewart Preble?"Stewart Preble, exactly. Who is he?""Why, he's the Chief of Naval Operations.)) "That's a big job, eh?" Madeline was used to civilian158 ignorance of the armed forces, but this shocked her. "Mr. Cleveland, there's nobody higher in the United States Navy." "Fine. Then he's our boy. I just found out he's at the Warwick. We keep tabs on the big hotels, Madeline. Now let's get off a letter to him." He leaned on the edge of the desk and started to dictate159. The yawning beauty crossed glorious legs, lit a cigarette, and leafed the Hollywood Reporter. Madeline desperately160 tried to keep up, but had to plead with him to go slower. Don't you know shorthand?" "I can learn it quickly enough." Cleveland glanced at his watch and at the beauty, who drooped161 her eyelids162 contemptuously at Madeline. Madeline felt like a worm. Cleveland rumpled163 his hair and shook his head. "Look, you know these Navy characters. Write him a letter, that's all. Invite him to come on the Thursday morning show. Mention Gary Cooper, if you want to. Sign my name, and take it over to the Warwick. Can you do that?" 'Certainly." "Fine. Wendy and I want to catch a ten o'clock movie. She plays a bit in it. Say, this Preble fellow, does he know your father? How about that, Wendy? This Idd's father is our Navy attache in Berlin." Wendy yawned. Madeline said coldly, "Admiral Preble knows my father." "Well, how about mentioning that, then?" He gave her his persuasive164 impish smile. 'I'd really like to get him, Madeline. Admirals and generals are usually crappy guests. Too cautious and stiff to say anything interesting. But there's a war on, so for the moment, they're hot. See you in the morning. I go on at nine, you know, so get here not later than eight." As he had told Madeline, Warren was dancing away this first night of the war in moonlight, with a congressman's pretty daughter. The moon floats out in space, some thirty diameters of the earth away, shining on the just and the unjust as the cloud cover allows. It had lent dim but helpful light to the columns of young Germans in gray uniforms, miles and miles long, trudging165 across the Polish border. Now Europe had rolled into the sun, giving the Germans better illumination to get on with the work, and the same moon was bathing the Gulf23 of Mejdco, and the terrace of Pensacola's HarborView Club. The German General Staff had carefully planned on the moonlight, but the silver glow fell on Warren Henry and Janice Lacouture by a pleasant chance. Everyone said it was the best club dance in years. The big headlines, the excited radio broadcasts, had created a pleasurable stir in flat quiet them more glamorous166; war was in the air, and however remote the combat, Pensacola. The student aviators167 felt more important and the girls found these were warriors169. The talk about the German attack soon gave way to homier topics, however: the horse show, the new base commander, recent flying accidents, recent romances. Der Fuhrer, for these happy people, remained the queer hoarse139 German of the newsreels, with the wild gestures and the funny mustache, who had managed to start up a European mess, but who could scarcely menace the United States just yet. Lieutenant170 (junior grade) Henry took a different view. The invasion really interested him, and that was how he first caught the interest of Janice Lacouture. At the Academy he had excelled on the subject of the World War. They sat in a far corner of the terrace in the moonlight soon after they met, and instead of talking aviation or making a pass at her, this student pilot told her about the Schlieffen Plan to capture Paris, and the way von Moltke had fatally tampered171 with it; about the feat10 of German railroading that had made the Tannenberg victory possible; about the strategic parallels of 1914 and 1939. He had begun with the usual aviator168 chitchat, which after years of Pensacola dating stupefied Janice. But once they began on the war and she allowed her own knowledge of history and politics to show, he turned serious. It had been an exciting talk, the sort in which lovers sometimes discover each other without speaking a romantic word. Despite the big Lacouture nose, a mark of French ancestry172, and rather irregular front teeth, Janice was one of the belles173 of Pensacola. Her mouth, skin, and hazel eyes were lovely; her figure so striking that all men automatically stared at her as at a fire. She was tall, blonde, with a soft pushing voice, and a very lively manner. Her family owmed the largest house in the club estates. The L-acoutures were solidly rich, from two generations in the timbering that had destroyed the Gulf pine forests for hundreds of miles, and turned northern Florida into a sandy insect-swarming waste. Her father was a wonder in somnolent174 and self-satisfied Pensacola, the first Lacout'ure who had ever bestirred himself in politics. In Washington Janice had grown up farseeing and sober. She had majored in economics and American history at George Washington University, and she was about to start law school. She wanted to marry a public man; a congressman, a senator, a governor; with luck, why not a future President? This was hard on the young men who fell for her beauty and chic105. Janice was out for big game, and she had acquired a reputation for frostiness which amused her. The last thing she had expected was to meet anybody worth knowing during her enforced summer in Pensacola. And of all people, a naval aviator! Nevertheless there was something different about Warren Henry. He was oddly appealing, with those pen ctrating eyes, bony ramshackle frame) graysprinkled hair, and easy smile, with its hint of shrewdness and immorality175. He acted as though he knew women far too well for an Annapolis honor student. This did not trouble her; it added tang to Warren. They stopped talking after a while and danced close-hugged in the moonlight. The Pensacola onlookers176 began inquiring about the background of the lieutenant junior grade with the scar; for Warren's ground loop had given him a forehead wound requiring nine stitches. The naval aviators told each other with envy who the Lacouture girl was. When Warren returned to the bachelor officers' quarters he found two telephone messages from Mrs. Tarrasch. This was his Baltimore divorcie; the woman of thirty for whom he had risked expuwon from the Academy; the woman with whom he had spent the afternoon in bed the day his parents had sailed off to Germany. In his third Academy year, he had come upon her as the lady hostess in a tearoom. Responding to a bold remark, she had agreed to see him after the restaurant closed. She was a clever little woman, with a hard-luck story about two beastly husbands; she was a reader, a lover of the arts, and hungrily passionate177. Warren had grown attached to her, and had briefly178 even thought of marrying her, when she had once roused his jealousy179 by going off with an older man for a weekend. Byron had talked him out of that, rendering180 him the greatest service in the power of a brother. Helene Tarrasch wasn't a bad woman, simply a lonely one. If young officer candidates are to be kept by law from marrying, then the lively ones win find one or another Mrs. Tarrasch. warren's worst mistake had been asking her to come to Pensacola, but he had been three years at sea. Now she was installed at the San Carlos Hotel as the receptionist in the main dining room. But how obsolete181 she suddenly was! Not only because of Janice Lacouture; Hitler's invasion of Poland had given the future a shape. Warren believed the United States would be at war within a year. The prosBut he was going to iqy in this war, pect glittered. He might get killed and if God allowed, he was going to get a good war record, Warren believed in God, but thought he must be much more broad-minded than the preachers made him out. A Being who could create something as Marvelous as sex was not likely to be priggish about it; Warren was fond of saying that God had clearly given a man balls not for beauty but for use. Sitting in his bleakly182 furnished room with the old-fashioned high ceiling, trying to ignore his room-mate's snores, Lieutenant Henry looked out of the window at the quiet moonlit lawn in front of the b.O.Q and allowed his mind to run to golden postwar fantasies. Politics attracted him. His avid183 history study had taught him that politicians were the leaders, military men only the mechanics, of war.
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defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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ironies
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| n.反语( irony的名词复数 )；冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事；嘲弄 | |
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geographical
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breached
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| 攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反 | |
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din
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allied
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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uprooting
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feat
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territorial
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Soviet
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eventual
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endorsed
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| vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品 | |
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soviets
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16
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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17
pact
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| n.合同，条约，公约，协定 | |
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18
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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19
repudiation
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| n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃 | |
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20
horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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21
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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22
engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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24
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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25
flake
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| v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片 | |
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26
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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27
coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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28
disastrously
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| ad.灾难性地 | |
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29
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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30
protocol
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| n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节 | |
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31
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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32
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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33
misgivings
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|
| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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34
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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35
deploy
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| v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开 | |
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36
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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37
bluffed
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| 以假象欺骗，吹牛( bluff的过去式和过去分词 )； 以虚张声势找出或达成 | |
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38
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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39
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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40
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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41
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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42
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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43
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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44
authoritarian
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| n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者 | |
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45
inept
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| adj.不恰当的，荒谬的，拙劣的 | |
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46
dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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47
fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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48
commentators
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| n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员 | |
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49
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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50
obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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51
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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52
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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53
dummies
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|
| n.仿制品( dummy的名词复数 )；橡皮奶头；笨蛋；假传球 | |
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54
disabused
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| v.去除…的错误想法( disabuse的过去式和过去分词 )；使醒悟 | |
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55
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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56
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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57
breakdown
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| n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌 | |
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58
disarray
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| n.混乱，紊乱，凌乱 | |
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59
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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60
liquidated
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| v.清算( liquidate的过去式和过去分词 )；清除（某人）；清偿；变卖 | |
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61
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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62
pusillanimously
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| adv.胆怯地，优柔寡断地 | |
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63
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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64
rationing
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| n.定量供应 | |
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65
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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66
meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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67
setback
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| n.退步，挫折，挫败 | |
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68
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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69
enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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71
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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72
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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73
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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74
scattering
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|
| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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75
humbug
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| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
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76
reactionary
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|
| n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的 | |
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77
brutal
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|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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78
mendacious
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| adj.不真的，撒谎的 | |
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79
pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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80
hyena
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| n.土狼，鬣狗 | |
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81
bluffing
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|
| n. 威吓，唬人 动词bluff的现在分词形式 | |
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82
bigoted
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|
| adj.固执己见的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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83
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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84
ignominiously
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|
| adv.耻辱地，屈辱地，丢脸地 | |
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85
paradoxes
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|
| n.似非而是的隽语，看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 )；用于语言文学中的上述隽语；有矛盾特点的人[事物，情况] | |
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86
absurdity
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|
| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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87
veracity
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| n.诚实 | |
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88
questionable
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|
| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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89
recurs
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| 再发生，复发( recur的第三人称单数 ) | |
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90
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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91
sprawl
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| vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延 | |
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92
bellow
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| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
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93
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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94
sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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95
deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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96
juggling
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| n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词 | |
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97
celebrities
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| n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉 | |
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98
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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99
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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100
rattling
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|
| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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101
scampering
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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102
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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103
awed
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|
| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
skeptical
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|
| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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105
chic
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|
| n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的 | |
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106
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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107
harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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108
cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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109
schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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110
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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111
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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112
Nazi
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| n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的 | |
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113
lettuce
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| n.莴苣；生菜 | |
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114
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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115
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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116
vendor
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| n.卖主；小贩 | |
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117
vendors
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| n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方 | |
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118
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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119
chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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120
aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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121
lotions
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| n.洗液，洗剂，护肤液( lotion的名词复数 ) | |
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122
aspirin
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| n.阿司匹林 | |
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123
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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124
sociably
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| adv.成群地 | |
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125
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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126
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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127
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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128
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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129
flirtatious
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| adj.爱调情的，调情的，卖俏的 | |
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130
smirk
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| n.得意地笑；v.傻笑；假笑着说 | |
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131
coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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132
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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133
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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134
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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135
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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136
zoomed
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| v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去式 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨 | |
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137
blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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138
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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139
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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140
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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141
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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bulged
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| 凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 )； 充满； 塞满（某物） | |
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overtime
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| adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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checkered
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| adj.有方格图案的 | |
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148
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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150
scrawls
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| 潦草的笔迹( scrawl的名词复数 ) | |
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151
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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152
vaudeville
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| n.歌舞杂耍表演 | |
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153
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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154
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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155
collapsing
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| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
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Congressman
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| n.（美）国会议员 | |
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157
gardenia
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| n.栀子花 | |
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158
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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161
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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162
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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163
rumpled
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| v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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166
glamorous
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| adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的 | |
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167
aviators
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| 飞机驾驶员，飞行员( aviator的名词复数 ) | |
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168
aviator
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| n.飞行家，飞行员 | |
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169
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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170
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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171
tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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172
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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173
belles
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| n.美女( belle的名词复数 )；最美的美女 | |
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174
somnolent
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| adj.想睡的，催眠的；adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地 | |
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175
immorality
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| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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176
onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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177
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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178
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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179
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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180
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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181
obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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182
bleakly
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| 无望地，阴郁地，苍凉地 | |
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183
avid
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| adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的 | |
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